EOL now nesting on the GC
Official NRL commentator of the UK Royal Family
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But again you fail to look at the larger picture. We had no cattle left by seasons end.we were playing guys that would have been lucky to get a start in many other sides reserve sides. We had pride gate. We were missing one of the top 3 players in the game for most of the season. Jake was out last few matches. The shoe was out for a large part of the season and never looked fit. Lawton who was great last year off the bench was suspended or injured for most of season leaving Croker as an 80 min hooker. Garrick who did great as a stand on for turbo also injured.Okay, I'll explain it in a way that hopefully gives some insight into why I make statements I have. For me, the result is making and winning a grand final. Everything else is the journey to get there. In order to GET to a grand final, a club / team has to have many things going for them (form, coaching, luck with injuries, good management operations, culture etc etc etc - you know, all the pretty stuff).
So for mine, part of the journey is consistency (that's key). Learning from your mistakes, improving on them, righting wrongs (again, all that pretty stuff).
So, what happens if on that journey, a huge glaring hole appears (say in defense, or clocking off in the second half)? Well, the good teams learn from them, and carry on, and don't let those things happen again, or become ingrained in the culture.
That Cowboys & Storm game along our journey to the Grand Final, exposed some serious issues around the culture of our on field performances, structures, coaching, attitudes in defense, particularly late in the second half of games. In my view the rest of the league , media, teams, fans noticed that, and we won ONE solitary game from that point on, as our defense was torn apart.
That's 8 rounds remaining (one win), and an average of 30.125 points against per game. Therefore, those touch ups handed to us in those periods against The Cows and Storm literally derailed us (I actually don't think it was the pride stuff) in my opinion - hence we got pumped in both.
And @Matai's shoulder , your snipes and passive aggressive emoji use is ordinary mate - even for you (a blow in). Let the adults talk mate, please.
The 2 fade outs IMHO had nothing to do with the poor run in. Those games were learning games.
So contrary to some peoples strong opinions I don't believe our 2022 was a result of
A. Dce inability to lead and play
Or
B. DES's inability to coach.
Unfortunately many will completely ignore the above facts and hoan in on small isolated parts of the season where Foran played well against 2 woodernspooners or the loosing streak that had so may reasons for happening.